21 DECEMBER 1940 DR. MANILAL : In the Gita Sri Krishna says that he knows all about Arjuna's past lives. SRI AUROBINDO: What about it? A past life can be known. DR. MANILAL : Then he knew all the details of his past life? SRI AUROBINDO: Who says that? Does Krishna say that? (Laughter) DR. MANILAL : He knew at least the salient features. SRI AUROBINDO: Not necessarily; he may have known only the general features. DR. MANILAL : Simply from general features one won't be able to make out the character and quality of a man. SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? The first impression one gets, on knowing the general features of a man's past life, is

16 MARCH 1940 NIRODBARAN: Sahana has given me two letters of yours to her explaining her experience of ascent and descent. She wants to know if the ascent and descent spoken of is the usual one or the major ascent and descent we heard about from you the other day. SRI AUROBINDO (after reading both the letters): The first one is the usual ascent and descent. The consciousness has not got fixed above in the higher planes. It is the mental opening through the head and Page-557 going up. The second one is the major ascent, rather the beginning. It has to become fixed above and the descent of the higher consciousness has to take place and transform the

22 MAY 1940 PURANI: Nehru is against Satyagraha at present in view of the condition of the Allies. SRI AUROBINDO: Why don't the leaders come to an agreement? NIRODBARAN: They are all still thinking and thinking. SATYENDRA: Yes, they are doing constructive work. NIRODBARAN: Charkha? Perhaps they are now waiting for Amery to make some move. SRI AUROBINDO: He will be busy with the defence of England. SATYENDRA: The German drive seems to be to encircle the Allies after they have reached the sea and then to attack the Maginot Line from the rear. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. PURANI: The Allies' position here seems to be the same as in Norway and

22 JUNE 1940 SRI AUROBINDO: The French Government is still at Bordeaux and negotiations have only started now! The Pondicherry Page -739 Government news was that the French Governor had left for Casablanca. PURANI: The Germans speak of the heroic resistance of the French Army and say that their terms will not be unjust or dishonourable. SRI AUROBINDO: No, they say they won't be shameful but severe. SATYENDRA: The Italian news says that they won't be as bad as Versailles. SRI AUROBINDO: They may not be as bad but still bad enough. If, as is reported, Hitler wants all the colonies contiguous with British colonies, then our position become

26 MAY 1940 SRI AUROBINDO: The British have made another strategic retreat. (Laughter) PURANI: Yes, they got safely away without losing a single man. SRI AUROBINDO: The Germans allowed them to run away, perhaps. PURANI: Fifteen generals have been relieved of their command in France. SRI AUROBINDO: That is quite a big number. PURANI: They were said to be indifferent and negligent. SRI AUROBINDO: That is why Reynaud said that if the French could stand for a month, there would be a better chance. They will have to look for new men to take the place of the old generals. NIRODBARAN: Was there sabotage in the army? PURANI: The general

6 DECEMBER 1940 DR . MANILAL : When the Gita says "I shall deliver you from all papa", does papa mean sin, Sir? SRI AUROBINDO: No, from all evils. Sin is a religious conception, an offence against God. Arjuna's refusal to fight can't be called an offence against God; it is an offence against morality, you can say. Virtue and vice are moral conceptions. MULSHANKAR: What type of Yogi is Gandhi, Sir? SRI AUROBINDO: Yogi? He is not a Yogi; he is an ethical man. MULSHANKAR: He is guided by voices. SRI AUROBINDO: Then everybody who is guided by voices would be a Yogi. Then all Quakers are Yogis. Those who are possessed by strong vital forc

25 DECEMBER 1940 EVENING Dr. Manilal had a warm cloth wrapped around his head and was sitting leaning against the small book case. When Sri Aurobindo sat up on the edge of the bed, he looked at him. SRI AUROBINDO: You are looking like one of the pictures of Ajanta, thinking the world to be a burden and being cold and miserable. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Today he has put on one more vest. DR. MANILAL : That can be easily taken off. I was not feeling cold but to prevent any draught I put it on. SRI AUROBINDO: I was speaking of your expression; you were looking like an incarnation of suffering. DR. MANILAL : But I am supposed t

26 JUNE 1940 PURANI: Hitler has presented a plan for the federation of continental Europe from which England and Russia will be barred. This man is full of ideas. SRI AUROBINDO: His New World Order? PURANI: Yes, Europe will be divided into three blocks: they will have no armies. SRI AUROBINDO: Wait a minute. How will the blocks be formed? PURANI: One block in the Balkans, one in Belgium, Holland, France, etc., and another in Spain, Portugal and other countries, I suppose. They won't have any armies. Hitler alone will have an army. SRI AUROBINDO: Of course, small nations won't be able to resist, except Franco's Spain, and she can have some weig

24 MARCH 1940 PURANI: Jinnah speaks of two Indian States-one Hindu and one Muslim. SRI AUROBINDO: Why two and not several? PURANI: Armando Menezes, the Goan poet, has come. He is publishing another book called Chaos and a Dancing Star. SRI AUROBINDO: The dancing star will be taken for a cinema star. (Laughter) PURANI: Yes, he himself fears so. NIRODBARAN: One criticism of Nishikanto's book is out. SRI AUROBINDO: I was wondering why no criticism had been made by anybody. What does it say? NIRODBARAN: It is by Buddhadev. He says that Nishikanto, by using fine images and rhythms, gives us pictures as well as sound-patterns so that both ey

10 JUNE 1940 SATYENDRA: Will there be any hierarchy among the supramental beings? SRI AUROBINDO: Supramental beings? In the Overhead, there is a hierarchy: Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition and so on. PURANI: That includes the Overmind. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, among the supramental beings too there is a hierarchy, in the sense of a gradation of consciousness towards the Sachchidananda. NIRODBARAN: Sisir was saying you have written in the last volume of The Life Divine that the supramental beings will retire into islets. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): I meant by islets, living in collective groups. NIRODBARAN: I also said the same thing to him.